Where To Get Financial Help

For high net worth individuals seeking a unique, holistic, Personal CFO wealth management offering, I’d love to tell you more about what we offer clients at Brighton Jones where I serve as the VP of Financial Education. You can think of us as your financial general physician, here to assist you with a wide array of situations to increase your financial well-being. Click here to speak with me further about Brighton Jones.

For those seeking other options and/or with less than $1 million to invest…

Ellevest is my go to firm for women with less than $1 million to invest who want to be part of the “What The Elle” movement. Founded by Wall Street veteran and all around #FinancialBadass Sallie Krawcheck, this firm is on it when it comes to giving women who are ready to take charge of their financial futures.

Vanguard, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab are three large, established mutual fund firms and brokerage houses that work with clients of all asset levels.

NAPFA, FPA, GarrettPlanningNetwork and the XY Planning Network are four associations that maintain searchable databases to help you find a fee-only financial advisor who can assist with early career, mid-life and post-retirement planning issues.

For those who are struggling to get out of debt my three favorite resources…

Pay It Down!by Jean Chatzky. No-nonsense advice from a personal finance veteran on how to dig yourself out of debt. If you are struggling under the burden of credit card or other debt, this gem of a book will show you how, on as little as $10 a day, you truly can “pay it down.”

The Total Money Makeoverby Dave Ramsey. Straight-talking advice from the famed TV and radio host. Dave takes a no holds barred approach to explaining how to have a balanced relationship with your money. Dave also oversees an amazing in-person personal finance curriculum through his nationwide “Financial Peace” University. He a true trailblazer when it comes to financial education. Millions have increased their financial literacy and financial security thanks to his work.

Get Out Of Debt Guy Steve Rhodes is a tireless advocator around issues of consumer debt and his site is full of actionable guidance.

Recommended Online Courses

Through the wellness company Grokker, I teach a very short, basic “7 Steps to Financial Wellness” online course that can be a great starter for those who feel they are at a true 101 level. (Note: you can take the course at no cost through Grokker’s free 14-day trial; after that if you want access to more Grokker wellness programs spanning meditation to yoga, you can use the promo code “manishat9monthly” to get 40% of the normal monthly fee, reducing your cost to a mere $9/month.

In addition, there are two other more in-depth and advanced online courses I highly recommend:

Both courses have very affordable price points and are packed full of useful information. They also make for great gifts for the women in your life!

Useful Websites

Financial Finesse, SmartAboutMoney, and MyMoney. If you’re eager to improve your overall Financial IQ, these three sites all provide a wealth of articles and information about general personal finance, financial security, and financial literacy.

For deep dives on specific subjects, RetirementRevised provides a wealth of information as you plan for (and enjoy!) your golden years. Oblivious Investor is a wonderful resource if you are interested in implementing passive investment strategies on your own. SavingForCollege. As the name suggests, if you are trying to figure out how best to help fund your children’s education, this is the website for you.

For useful calculators and online tools, Bankrate and Dinkytown provide calculators for everything from estimating your taxes to seeing how long it will take to pay off your credit cards so you can achieve financial security. FIRECalc and Moneychimp provide easy ways to see how long your money will last at varying spending rates and calculate CAGRs on the S&P over different time periods.

Suggested Reading

General Personal Finance

The Index Card by Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack. The subtitle of this book is “Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated” and the book lives up to that promise. Sharing 10 rules on how to live a life of financial wellness — each rule which can bit easily on an index card — this book is packed full of personal finance goodness and one of my staple recommendations for learning the essentials of personal finance.

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. Have you ever found yourself asking, “Is this all there is?” If so, this book is for you. Your Money or Your Life is the seminal book on how to think about the trade-off between earning money and having time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. When it comes to increasing your financial literacy and your financial security, this book is the gold standard.

Can I Retire? by Michael Piper. In less than 100 pages and in jargon-free English, this gem of a book nails the key issues of: (1) how to identify your “number” – that amount you must have saved to be able to safely nibble away on your nest egg in retirement with low odds of outliving your money AND (2) exactly how to draw down that nest egg – from asset allocation to what Michael smartly calls ‘asset location’ (what investments to put in which accounts & in what order to access funds from those accounts). If you are trying to get a handle on whether or not you can retire, this book is an absolute must-read.

Investing

Smart Women Love Money by Alice Finn. A feminine investing manifesto! Alice Finn (a Harvard Law School grad turned personal finance executive and advisor) teaches you the 5 key things to know about your portfolio. Arguing that investing is the final frontier of feminism — there is no glass ceiling when it comes to success personal investment. If you read just one book about investing this year, let it be this one!

Investing Made Simple by Michael Piper. This book is a clear, straightforward discussion on topics like asset allocation, picking mutual funds, frequent investor mistakes, and calculating retirement needs. If you’re looking for a plain-English, non-technical guide to investing, this is the book for you.

The Random Walk Guide to Investing by Burton G. Malkiel. Legendary Princeton professor Burton Malkiel boils down years of academic research and education into a highly readable primer on the basics of investing. If you want some solid academic evidence showing why “passive” or “evidence-based” investment strategies are the way to go, this is the book for you.

Books on Women & Money

Overcoming Underearning: A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life by Barbara Stanny. Written by the iconic and ground-breaking woman and money chronicler, this book helps you overcome the self-imposed condition of underearning (living paycheck-to-paycheck, struggling with debt, and tolerating low pay). Read this time-tested classic book and you will not only learn five essential steps to financial independence, you’ll also feel empowered and confident in your value.

Emotional Currency: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship With Money by Kate Levinson, PhD. In this book author and psychotherapist Dr. Kate Levinson offers fresh approaches to navigating the astonishing range of beliefs about the role of money in our lives, coming to terms with our feelings about being “rich” or “poor,” and exploring our inner money life so that we can put our feelings to work for us in a positive way.

Teaching Kids About Money

Make Your Kid A Money Genius (Even If You Are Not!) by Beth Kobliner. Excellent, straight-forward advice divided into 8 broad topic with specific advice on how to deliver it to kids as young as 3 as as old as 23. To ensure a smooth deliver, Kobliner also provide “14 rules for talking to your kids about money” and “7 things you don’t need to tell your kids about money.”

Raising Financial Fit Kids by Joline Godfrey. As with Kobliner’s book, Godfrey also provides a range of advice — including saving, spending, budgeting, investing, using credit, etc. — broken down by age range. She also includes a number of age appropriate activities to make the lessons come to life.

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The material on this website is intended for general information purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation to effect, or attempt to effect transactions in securities, or the rendering of personalized investment advice for compensation, over the Internet. Please see full text of disclosures for additional information. Copyright 2018 – MoneyZen, LLC.